May 7, 2016

"Men used to live in boardinghouses quite commonly. You had places like the old Y.M.C.A.s. These were really significant parts of the housing stock a century ago. They have since become far less common... I think it’s flipped... There’s much less of a stigma being a 40-year-old man living alone than being a 40-year-old man living with a male roommate. Living alone has become far more viable. A hundred years ago, that would have been completely different."

This *really* feels like left-wing justification for economic collapse. People won't be able to afford cars, but that's actually good, because walking is better for you. People won't be able to afford houses, but that's good, because then they'll have more social interaction. People won't live as long, but that's good because people really should make room for the next generation. More people will be unemployed, but that's good, because then they'll have more time to write poetry.

Bob is right.There has been a great fall in the overall real standard of living, and quite a few people just want to tiptoe around it.

Laslo is also right.I have been in that situation, almost precisely! Including the ponytails. Who knew Laslo and I had so much in common?Things worked much better in every way once I got my own San Francisco apartment, at a good address, humble as it was. That in itself was a selling point.

And, Laslo, also the futon. There is some telepathy going on.Maybe one day Laslo will extrasensorily perceive my lesbian girlfriend adventure. Bachelor life in San Francisco can be interesting. My roomie wasnt playing video games though, he had a stack of "Harvard Business Review". That's just how we rolled.

Aren't a lot of sitcoms based around the idea of male roommates? The Odd Couple being the most famous. Friends. Two and a half men. New Girl. Etc. and so on. I don't think there's a stigma unless a person is trying to stigmatize it.

If you look at old census forms, as I do doing genealogy research, there were quite a few "hired hands" living with families on farms and quite a few "hired girls" living with families.

There certainly were boarding houses. I have a story in my latest book about a patient of mine who was in San Francisco on the day of the earthquake. He was 15 and staying in a boarding house. But only for a few days.

I just don't think there were that many single men of 40 doing so. I'm happy to be corrected by evidence, however.

Yeah, no one explains to these Millenials that going off to college dorms is your future. Between your economically worthless B.A. and your student loans, this is your life. But look on the bright side: if you can afford a car, you can get a gig as a gypsy cab, er, Cool Internet Uber driver. Nothing like the Depression, not at all.

Myself and two other guys rented a small house when we all worked at a Pizza Parlor. Then they were moving on, with me stuck with the rent. We never got accused of being queers.

A really nice looking girl asked me if she could move in with her girlfriend. I said "hell yes". Well, she confided, that they were lovers. Well, I've never lived with lesbians before, so I told them sure, they could have the master bedroom side of the house and I would take the room at the opposite side of the house, but we'd all have to share a bathroom.

Well, we lived together for a year before I moved on, having been transferred to Germany.

You wouldn't believe the amount of abuse we took about "two girls and one guy." Everyone thought I was John Holmes or something. In real life, I never even got laid that year, having several worthless girlfriends, and being mostly poor.

"You wouldn't believe the amount of abuse we took about "two girls and one guy."

When I was in college, four of us rented a big old house in Los Angeles. We had one small bedroom in the back that had probably been servants quarters in the previous life of the house. We rented it to a girl in return for her keeping the place cleaned up.

Boarding houses used to be a common thing up until the 1960s right? There is this Twilight Zone episode called "Static" which features such a boarding house of middle-aged men and women living lives of quiet desperation. I wonder why such a thing suddenly ended then.

Nope Laslo, I am a dull plodding fellow. You have that gift of the Muse. Ever thought of publishing? Some of your things here can be the core of something really excellent. Ponytail girl. Nazi girlfriend. Scarlett Johansson - eh, pour epater les bourgeois gets old fast. Of course if you really are a screenwriter or a professional writer, please excuse my presumption and let us know what you've written so we can go see it ASAP.

Is it stigma or just evidence that someone doesn't have enough money to live alone? I lived with other people most of the time I was in grad school and never heard a word about it.

Boarding houses in the 1800s don't have an easy parallel to today. In the West, you'd see towns that were 70-80% single men. Fewer possessions, and food and shelter made up a bigger part of the budget, lower expectations of privacy. Lincoln not only had a male roommate before being married, they shared a bed! In Moby Dick, Ishmael meets Queequeg when they share the same bed in a boarding house -- I believe Queequeg doesn't even wake up when Ishmael gets in.